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An IRC client in your motherboard

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Re: An IRC client in your motherboard

#31

Post by hex4def6 »

codyd51 wrote: post #2

Hi everyone! As a bit of a gag, I’ve made a graphical IRC Client that runs entirely in the UEFI preboot environment. It features completely overdone features such as TrueType fonts, a cursor, and GUI decorations. I first started this project as I was getting a bit tired building a from-scratch GPS receiver, and wanted to make something relatively quick and lighthearted. As tends to happen, this took a fair bit longer…

This is extremely cool!

I've had an idea percolating in my mind for a while: Would it be possible to have VPN credentials stored in UEFI, and have a system reach out to a server for PXE network boot?

It seems like it would be a neat way of (securely?) allowing a remote system to automatically recover in the event of a nuked install that prevents proper bootup.

Re: An IRC client in your motherboard

#32

Post by ijijijjij »

backspace_ wrote: post #18
codyd51 wrote: post #2

Hi everyone! As a bit of a gag, I’ve made a graphical IRC Client that runs entirely in the UEFI preboot environment. It features completely overdone features such as TrueType fonts, a cursor, and GUI decorations. I first started this project as I was getting a bit tired building a from-scratch GPS receiver, and wanted to make something relatively quick and lighthearted. As tends to happen, this took a fair bit longer…

This does not include ssl support? How much does this limit the number of irc nets that you can connect to?

I never seen an IRC server that only support SSL.... I don't use many networks nowadays though... I only know of one channel that supports encrypted DCC transfers though.

Re: An IRC client in your motherboard

#34

Post by Jhsto »

hex4def6 wrote: post #31
codyd51 wrote: post #2

Hi everyone! As a bit of a gag, I’ve made a graphical IRC Client that runs entirely in the UEFI preboot environment. It features completely overdone features such as TrueType fonts, a cursor, and GUI decorations. I first started this project as I was getting a bit tired building a from-scratch GPS receiver, and wanted to make something relatively quick and lighthearted. As tends to happen, this took a fair bit longer…

This is extremely cool! I've had an idea percolating in my mind for a while: Would it be possible to have VPN credentials stored in UEFI, and have a system reach out to a server for PXE network boot? It seems like it would be a neat way of (securely?) allowing a remote system to automatically recover in the event of a nuked install that prevents proper bootup.

Not OP, but what is much simpler is buying a motherboard with IPMI and placing that behind a VPN. If you cannot afford the couple hundred extra bucks for the motherboard, then a USB stick with minimal Linux setup + SSH and then doing a kexec from that is another option.

Re: An IRC client in your motherboard

#35

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

codyd51 wrote: post #2

Hi everyone! As a bit of a gag, I’ve made a graphical IRC Client that runs entirely in the UEFI preboot environment. It features completely overdone features such as TrueType fonts, a cursor, and GUI decorations. I first started this project as I was getting a bit tired building a from-scratch GPS receiver, and wanted to make something relatively quick and lighthearted. As tends to happen, this took a fair bit longer…

Looking forward to ditching these bloated operating systems with all this cruft I I do not need for something smaller and simpler: UEFI. Not to mention faster startup. Easier "embedded" development.

Of course I am joking. Sort of.

As a minimalist I do not need a GUI or a mouse. It seems UEFI already has more than I need.

Here is the Twitter client mentioned:

https://github.com/arata-nvm/mitnal

Re: An IRC client in your motherboard

#36

Post by _8j50 »

codyd51 wrote: post #2

Hi everyone! As a bit of a gag, I’ve made a graphical IRC Client that runs entirely in the UEFI preboot environment. It features completely overdone features such as TrueType fonts, a cursor, and GUI decorations. I first started this project as I was getting a bit tired building a from-scratch GPS receiver, and wanted to make something relatively quick and lighthearted. As tends to happen, this took a fair bit longer…

If this supports TLS, I would use it all the time.

Re: An IRC client in your motherboard

#38

Post by contingencies »

hex4def6 wrote: post #31
codyd51 wrote: post #2

Hi everyone! As a bit of a gag, I’ve made a graphical IRC Client that runs entirely in the UEFI preboot environment. It features completely overdone features such as TrueType fonts, a cursor, and GUI decorations. I first started this project as I was getting a bit tired building a from-scratch GPS receiver, and wanted to make something relatively quick and lighthearted. As tends to happen, this took a fair bit longer…

This is extremely cool! I've had an idea percolating in my mind for a while: Would it be possible to have VPN credentials stored in UEFI, and have a system reach out to a server for PXE network boot? It seems like it would be a neat way of (securely?) allowing a remote system to automatically recover in the event of a nuked install that prevents proper bootup.

Actually, all it takes on modern hardware for PXE boot to occur on hardware failure is the BIOS boot order setting.

As PXE inherently trusts the LAN, and a LAN may have VLAN support, you can assign a default VLAN to the port which equates to the PXE server you want.

The PXE server can further configure by client MAC prefix, DHCP-assigned IP mapped to physical port number or similar. Configured systems can report status and/or other hardware identifiers to a server after installation and have default VLAN changed by the network fabric (more secure), or can actively request to join alternate VLANs (less secure).

With PXE, any information can be fed to the machine, not just VPN credentials.

This is how a lot of clusters are built, especially diskless (for CPU-bound operations) in this era of more-RAM-than-you-can-use.

All of the above should work with IPMI ports if the controller is flashed with PXE-enabled firmware.

Re: An IRC client in your motherboard

#39

Post by toast0 »

SuperNinKenDo wrote: post #33

I don't know whether to think this is awesome, or a horrifying demonstration of bloat in UEFI.

I don't think this really demonstrates UEFI bloat. A tcp/ip stack from boot services is handy and useful for 'legitimate' network booting, not really bloat IMHO; pxe and undi is similar in a bios environment but ddoesn't necessarily come from the motherboard firmware. Access to input devices, such as keyboard and mouse is reasonable too. Graphical output seems reasonable too.

And then everything else is stuff the author did or linked in. Where's the firmeware bloat?

Re: An IRC client in your motherboard

#40

Post by E39M5S62 »

Jhsto wrote: post #34
hex4def6 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is extremely cool! I've had an idea percolating in my mind for a while: Would it be possible to have VPN credentials stored in UEFI, and have a system reach out to a server for PXE network boot? It seems like it would be a neat way of (securely?) allowing a remote system to automatically recover in the event of a nuked install that prevents proper bootup.

Not OP, but what is much simpler is buying a motherboard with IPMI and placing that behind a VPN. If you cannot afford the couple hundred extra bucks for the motherboard, then a USB stick with minimal Linux setup + SSH and then doing a kexec from that is another option.

https://docs.zfsbootmenu.org/en/v2.3.x/general/tailscale.htm... . Connect to your bootloader via your Tailscale network, select your ZFS boot environment and kexec in to it, all through a 'pretty' TUI !
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